My batteries are discharged to storage levels and in are the refrigerator for winter. The last flight of the season was about a month ago for me. My helis have been packed away for the winter for about a month with the exception of one, the Razor 450 plastic version.

October, my last day of flying was GREAT! I flew 7 packs through the Razor without any incidents and enjoyed the day very much! As the timer beeped on battery number seven, I brought her in for a nice soft landing and killed the alarm. I thought “I’ll just squeeze-in one more take-off and landing before calling it a day”. As most of you know, when we tempt fate and go for ‘one more circuit’, that’s when bad things usually happen. Still, I spooled up again and just before lift-off, the heli began to spin 360’s on the ground! After I powered down, I discovered that the servo had stripped and was locked in full-left rudder.

I had such a great day of flying that I dismissed the servo malfunction and considered myself extremely fortunate that it happened on the ground. Whew.. dodged another bullet! Hence, my Razor has been left out-of-the-box until I got around to tracing down the cause.

Getting ready to start my next project, I decided to repair the Razor today and pack it away. The cause of the problem was a lack of Loctite on the tail steering-arm screw. The screw had backed out enough to put the steering-arm into a twist and therefore, a bind. The servo couldn’t handle it and stripped-out. Now we know why modelers suggest dismantling your new heli and put Loctite on every metal-to-metal screw, just for reassurance. Lesson learned!

Why loctite? I thought you know a blue thread lock adhesive will be better?
Wait..... Check xheli video about Razer 450, Tony also talk about check screws for loctite. Did I miss something?

Thread lock is available in many brand-names. All of the brands offer different locking strengths: Red (strongest), Blue (medium), and a third-color (lightest).

The prefered strength for heli's is the Blue (medium). So, when you hear someone say "use threadlock" or "use Locktite", we are really saying "use a medium strength (blue) threadlock", regardless of the brand name.

Like me, so many flyers are NOT around other people who fly helicopters. In my case, the only RC Helicopters that I’ve ever actually seen fly, in person, are my own. Despite the one-hundred photos, videos, and charts that I’ve collected, in order to get an idea of size comparisons, nothing will give you an accurate appreciation of size differences until you are holding the physical parts in your hand! In order to get a grasp on it, I had gone so far as to create a metric to inches spreadsheet, comparing every size model from 200 to 700, hoping it would help me wrap my mind around the difference in scale. Well, it helped, but not too much. My project arrived and I was shocked over the size of this heli!

As I do this ‘build’, I’ll post photos to help you get an idea of the differences in size between a 250, 450, and 600.

Step One complete! Align is kind enough to pre-assemble the head and swash. Intentionally, they do not tighten any of the screws/bolts because they want the modeler to grease and thread-lock parts for final assembly. Thread lock and grease is provided in the kit.

First impressions-

* Quality of parts! From the time of this kit's arrival, I've been amazed as to the quality of each part. That's why the Align kits cost a little more (not much more) than building a clone.

* Weight! The completed head (shown below) weighs more than the entire 450 heli (shown below) without batteries. The entire 600 kit weighs-in at 10.16 lbs before assembly.

The completed head (shown below) weighs more than the entire 450 heli (shown below) without batteries. The entire 600 kit weighs-in at 10.16 lbs before assembly.

So far, I'm loving it!

I think the pic of the head in your hand really gets the point across the best. I was like you -- I concocted charts, consulted rulers, looked for photo comparisons... but in the end, it took physically getting that thing in front of me to come to grips with how huge it was!

Big flies better ( or so they say!)

PS -- Got a 260PUH on the way for the gasser along with my other repair parts! More power!

I think the pic of the head in your hand really gets the point across the best. I was like you -- I concocted charts, consulted rulers, looked for photo comparisons... but in the end, it took physically getting that thing in front of me to come to grips with how huge it was!

Big flies better ( or so they say!)

PS -- Got a 260PUH on the way for the gasser along with my other repair parts! More power!

You are so right! Until you are holding it, or have it on your own table, you just can't get it! I'll try to get my hands into more future photos. When you finally see how HUGE these parts are, it's exactly as your comment "Kinda gets your attention, don't it?"

As John Salt (www.rchelicopterfun.com) teaches, "buy the BIGGEST heli that you can afford to buy and crash.. because the bigger they are, the more stable they are." We'll see! Meanwhile, I have a feeling that I'll be just as happy to admire it this winter, once assembled.

More power for the Gasser? That just brings a tear of joy to my eye thinking about it! Fly-on Bro!

Its defininatly a smoother more fluid flight with bigger heli. One reason i think as you are more in touch with what the heli is doing because the rotor disk is easy to see. The other reason i think is that you tend to fly larger heli's in a very tame manner because in the back of your mind you know that any mistakes will likly cost you a $100. The momentum of the extra weight at the bottom end of a stall turn fly by is something your always anticipating as well. A smaller heli flown on low rates in a conservative manner is probably the same, but you cant see it well in flight, so i think that makes the little ones a lot harder. Ive got quite a lot of heli's(20-30) ranging from 100's and up to my GAUI550(1100mm rotor). The 450's I have once you start to get comfortable with them seem to offer the best flight experience for me anyhow. They are fast, and well behaved if set up right, and just big enough to track in the air without loosing orientation. Cheap to repair as well. I'm trying a CopterX500 next to try and meet the middle ground between my GAUI550 and 450's. Your 700 Heligriff looks like a fun and exciting project. No more big heli's for me though, unless Walkera's new EnercoCX turns out to be a winner. The 500size dual swash collective pitch tri rotor of the Enerco CX makes me salivate like a dog at a BBQ

Its defininatly a smoother more fluid flight with bigger heli. One reason i think as you are more in touch with what the heli is doing because the rotor disk is easy to see. The other reason i think is that you tend to fly larger heli's in a very tame manner because in the back of your mind you know that any mistakes will likly cost you a $100. The momentum of the extra weight at the bottom end of a stall turn fly by is something your always anticipating as well. A smaller heli flown on low rates in a conservative manner is probably the same, but you cant see it well in flight, so i think that makes the little ones a lot harder. Ive got quite a lot of heli's(20-30) ranging from 100's and up to my GAUI550(1100mm rotor). The 450's I have once you start to get comfortable with them seem to offer the best flight experience for me anyhow. They are fast, and well behaved if set up right, and just big enough to track in the air without loosing orientation. Cheap to repair as well. I'm trying a CopterX500 next to try and meet the middle ground between my GAUI550 and 450's. Your 700 Heligriff looks like a fun and exciting project. No more big heli's for me though, unless Walkera's new EnercoCX turns out to be a winner. The 500size dual swash collective pitch tri rotor of the Enerco CX makes me salivate like a dog at a BBQ

Mick

Thanks for the tips, Mick! The setup in the photo looks sweet!

I'm just following the normal path of so many previous modelers; go BIG 'cause ya just have to do it once. Then, go back small again. Since I like to fly 'scale', I'll be keeping this big bird tamed down. It will likely never fly more than 40% of its potential.

I've heard terrific things about how smooth the Gaui's are, so I hope mine fits that bill.

I took a variety of electrics out to the park today - HBKII in Jetranger fuse, Blade 400 in Jetranger fuse, and my Genius CP, and just did some circuits and hovering in all orientations to keep my fingers limber. I think the Gaui will be too big to 'sneak' into the park without attracting unwanted attention, so I will probably just fly that one weekends-only at my 'nitro' field, which is a little further from the house, but more secluded.